demolished, and cast into a noisome place. There is a more urgent cause for a man's body to be destroyed, and laid in the sepulchre, because he was created to be the palace of the living God, the dwelling of his glory ; but sin, a kind of infectious leprosy, hath insinuated itself, and disfigured it, hath entered the skin, corrupted the blood, disordered the spirits, crept into the joints and marrow, and hath spread its venom in such a manner that there is none of our members but is an instrument of iniquity and unrighteousness, Rom. vi. For the same reason, we cannot sufficiently admire the difference which God has put between the vessels that were clean, and such as were unclean ; for he commanded, that the earthen vessels infected should be broken in pieces, Lev. xi. but that such as were of a more valuable substance, should be only washed with water, and purified with fire, Numb. xi. The commands and laws of the great God are excellent commentaries upon his actions. Our soul is like a golden vessel, because it is a spiritual and heavenly substance, therefore God doth not altogether destroy it, although it be infected with sin, but causes it to be washed and cleansed at the fountain of his infinite mercy. He purifies it with the blood of his Son, and causes it to pass through the fire of his holy Spirit. But for this miserable body and earthly vessel and tabernacle, he breaks it to pieces, and reduces it to dust and ashes. It is my judgment, that Death is an excellent means to demonstrate the infinite power of our great God and Saviour: for the greater the disease is, the more admirable is the cure. Without doubt, the finger of God, in his infinite power, is far more visible in raising one man from the dead, than preserving many thousands alive. As God is wont to enlighten our darkness, so he makes use of Death, to cause his infinite wisdom to shine and appear in all his creatures. Sin hath brought forth Death; and Death, on the contrary, as a most fortunate parricide, kills and detroys 3 stroys its parent, sin; for it is Death that totally roots out of our souls all corrupt affections. Death they are Moreover, God, who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, Heb. xiii. will have all his children pass through the same path, to take possession of his eternal inheritance, and enter by the same gate into his royal palace. All the faithful in the Old Testament are gone already this way, "through many tribulations," Acts xxiv. They are arrived. to the kingdom of God, and through come to the abode of life and immortality. The holy scriptures that are inspired of God tell us, that the Reubenites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, Num. xxxii. Josh. i. left their dwellings which they had beyond Jordan, to go over and fight in the army of Israel, and did not offer to return until God had given rest to their brethren, and put them into a peaceable possession of their inheritances. If I may make some stop at such an elegant allegory, I may say, that these passages represent to us a lively figure of the faithful who die before the end of the world: for they leave their bodies, the abode and dwelling of their souls, and pass through Death, as through another Jordan, into the celestial Canaan, to encounter with God by their prayers, in the society of the first-born, whose names are registered in heaven; and they will not return again to their bodies, until the number of the saints be complete, until the building of the church be finished, and until our great Joshua has introduced us into his eternal rest, and put us in possession of the incorruptible inheritance reserved for us in heaven. Then we shall not need to fight, but to enjoy peaceably the fruits of our victories, and to rest for ever from our labours. We shall have no cause to offer to God prayers and supplications; but our business-shall be to sing unto him praises, and eternal thanksgivings. The more considerable reason, in my judgment, of this 2. G Our our destiny, is, that God has predestinated us to be conformable to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren; he will have us to be baptized with his baptism, and drink of his cup, and enter into bliss by the same gate through which he has already passed. Through shame and disgrace he is arrived to glory; and through death he is entered into life. He hath drunk of the bitter waters, before he tasted of the river of celestial joys; and he went down into the grave, before he would mount up to the right hand of God. Although it is appointed unto all men once to die, Heb. ix. 27. I dare affirm, that Death has no cause to triumph, because the chief advantage is not on that side. We read in the book of Esther, that king Ahasuerus would not recal the proclamation that he had sent forth against the Jews, but he gave them full liberty to take up arms to defend themselves, to attack their enemies, and to make them suffer all the mischief they intended against them. I find something like unto this proceeding, for God would not call back the sentence of death pronounced against mankind in the garden of Eden; nevertheless he allows us, nay, he commands his true Israel, to take up arms against Death, to conquer and trample it under feet. In the first place Jesus Christ, our head, hath encountered with Death, and overcome it; he hath pursued it unto its trenches, and baffled it in its own fortification; Death thought to have devoured him, but it hath been devoured itself. As the fishes are taken by the hook that they think to swallow; and as the bees hurt those whom they sting, but do greater harm to themselves, for they break their stings, and lose thereby their lives: thus Death, by fixing its sting in the humanity of Jesus Christ, hath put him to a great deal of pain for a time, but it has thereby lost all strength and vigour for ever. The The men of Judah, to satisfy the enraged Philistines, delivered into their hands Samson bound with ropes. When they saw him, they gave several joyful shouts; but the Spirit of God came upon him in such a manner, that he tore in pieces the two ropes wherewith he was bound, and overcame them by whom he was to be led away prisoner, and killed a thousand of them. Thus the miserable Jews, for fear of the Romans, delivered unto them our Lord Jesus Christ, their brother according to the flesh, bound like a malefactor. When hell saw him nailed to the cross, and afterwards laid in the grave, it did wonderfully rejoice the devil, and his angels began to sing songs of triumph. But it was altogether impossible, that the Prince of life should be detained in the prisons of Death. He hath not only broken out of the grave by his infinite power, but hath also trampled under feet all his most furious enemies, and overcome millions of infernal fiends. And to declare how life and death were in his power, he baffled Death, when he was, as it were, a prisoner, shut up in his dungeon. He hath broke open the gates of this black prison, and torn in pieces all its fetters: for when he was yet in the grave, he raised to life many that were dead, who were seen in the holy city; and yet at present he holds in his hand the keys of death and hell. Therefore, as children rejoice at their father's victory, and as the subjects are concerned at the prosperous proceeding of their king, and as the members are the better for the glory and honour of their head; thus we may justly glory in the most notable victories and famous triumphs of Jesus Christ, who is our father, king, and head. We may also justly glory, that we are lords of Death, and that we have overcome it in the person of our great God and Saviour. I sit together in heavenly places with Jesus Christ," Eph. ii. Moreover, : Moreover, as our Saviour hath once overcome Death for us, he continues to subdue it in and by us. He suffers us not to encounter with our enemies alone, nor leaves us in our agonies but as in a day of battle, a wise and provident general has an eye to every place, and encourages, by his action and voice, his soldiers, whom he perceives at handyblows with the enemy; some he loads with praises, others with promises; by those means he encourages such as behave themselves bravely, rescues the weak and feeble, and to such as are overborne he furnishes them with fresh supplies thus deals with us our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the great God of hosts, who sits in the heavens in triumph, and beholds all our combats and encounters. When he perceives us too weak, that we might not be overcome by our dreadful enemies, he furnishes us with his Holy Spirit, and his own armour, as Jonathan did David, when he delivered to him his cloak, his bow, his belt, and sword. Besides, this merciful Saviour disarms Death of its most hurtful weapons, and takes away all its arrows and darts. As the strength and power of Samson lodged in the hair of his head, which the Philistines could never have imagined; so the strength and power of Death consists in such things as the world least dreams of. The most dreadful weapons with which it terrifies and beats us, are the thunderbolts and curses of the law; and our sins are poison in which it dips its arrows, or rather our sins are fiery darts with which it wounds and destroys us. Now Jesus Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, when he became a curse for us, Gal. iii. He has carried our sins in his body upon the cross, 1 Pet. ii. and, as the he-goat Hazazel, has transported them away into an uninhabited desert, Lev. xvi. he has removed them from the eyes of our God, as far as the east is from the west; he has cast them to the bottom of the ocean, and drowned them in his blood; so that we |